


Never Gonna Change

by WhatWouldLilyDo



Series: NHL!Nursey [6]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, Homophobic Language, Kid Fic, M/M, NHL!Nursey, Nursey Week, Nursey is asexual, Nursey through the years, Sexist Language, Time Skips, although tbh the nature of the fic means you don't see a lot of that or how it came to be, and has a fulfilling and loving relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-09
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-15 16:03:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13616808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhatWouldLilyDo/pseuds/WhatWouldLilyDo
Summary: "You're good at school. And stories. And you're fluent in three languages and competent in a fourth. Hockey doesn't have to be everything."Derek stood up, shaking his head. Hockeywaseverything, and he was happy with that.





	1. Five

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Nursey Week](https://nurseyweek.tumblr.com). I'm following the age prompts, so each day will be a new chapter with Nursey at the age prompted, and it will follow the theme of his hockey playing at each stage of life! Many thanks to everyone who talked me through baby hockey and who read over chapters for me.

Derek didn’t look up when Ma entered the room, not even to receive her kiss. He pushed Barbie forward and knocked a plastic pancake across the floor with her hand.

"Hi, Daruk. Did you have a good day?" Ma asked in Gujarati.

"We watched the Rangers. Daddy taught me all their names."

"That's great, sweetheart. Are your toys having a party?"

Derek finally looked up, a frown on his face. "No. They're playing hockey."

"Hockey, huh? Where's the puck?"

Derek used Tigger's tail to move the pancake past Teddy. "Tigger has the puck. Tigger's the best defenseman in the NHL so he always has the puck unless Messier or McCarthy has it. Or Mal- Maha- Manny."

"Malhotra?"

"Malhotra," Derek repeated. "Oh! Or Armstrong. Did you know he's called Derek, too?"

"Is he? That's a good name."

"Yeah." Tigger's tail whipped the pancake across the room. Derek grinned, oblivious to Ma's wince when it bounced off the baseboard of the opposite wall with a ping. "He scores! Tigger Nurse gets the hatty putting the New York Rangers five-no above the Islanders. Islanders captain Bubble Bear goes off the ice crying." He bounced Leila's blue teddy bear to the side of the room.

"Did they win?"

"That's only the end of the first. They need some cookies now."

Ma raised an eyebrow. "Come on, then. Maybe the players need some juice too? They've been playing so hard."

Derek followed her through the hallway and sat Tigger on one of the barstools at the kitchen island before clambering into the next one along. Ma put a plate in front of him with two homemade cookies and a cup of orange juice.

"What do you want to do tomorrow, sweetheart? I'm picking you up from nursery school."

"Watch the Rangers."

" _May I_ watch the Rangers, Derek. And no, babo, they've not got another game until Friday."

Derek looked up from his cookie with shining, hopeful eyes. "May we go there?"

"It's too late. After your bedtime."

"But after Friday is Saturday."

"You still have a bedtime at the weekend. We can watch it on TV on Saturday."

"When can I- When may I go to a real game?"

"When you're a little bit older."

"When I'm five and a quarter?"

"When you're six," Ma told him, and Derek took the kiss she pressed to his forehead as a promise.

A grin spread across Derek's face. "Daddy said I can join a hockey team when I'm six, too. I wanna be six now. How long until I'm six?"

"Want to, Daruk, not wanna. It's March now, and your birthday is in February. You can work that out."

"March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December..." Derek stared at his hands, all ten fingers splayed. He had run out of fingers, but he'd also run out of months.

"January, sweetheart. We go back to January after December."

"That's too many. It's too far." The now-empty juice cup clattered to the floor.

"Derek." Ma said, warningly. He stuck out his lip in a pout. "It's eleven months. Less than a year. You'll be six sooner than you think."

Derek pretended to feed Tigger the second cookie, then shoved it in his own mouth, chewing over it and the idea of being six. "Can we go skating? Tomorrow?"

Ma smiled at him. "Okay. We'll go before we have to pick Leila up from school."

A smile on his face, Derek jumped down from the barstool, and picked up Tigger. "It's time for the second period now."


	2. Ten

"Hey squirt."

"What are you doing here?" Derek asked, but he was grinning at Leila.

"Dad's working. I'm here to walk home with you. How was practice?"

"Good! I scored!"

"Where was the goalie?"

Derek rolled his eyes and pushed past her. Four years ago, when he first started playing hockey, his sister's chirps had got to him, but he was used to them now as much as he had settled into the position of defenseman on his squirt team.

"Hey, what's with the bruise?" Leila poked at sensitive skin on the back of Derek's neck. He winced and knocked her hand out of the way.

"That's just where Rosy hit me."

"You're not allowed to fight. "

"We were practicing checking."

He wondered when Leila had perfected Ma's calculating, stern stare. It made him squirm, and he had the urge to tell her everything about the practice and the chirps which bordered on offensive and the way the coaches turned their backs when Pretzel's fist hit Rosy's arm and soon even with Derek was trying to avoid the brunt of the fighting he was caught in pushing and shoving. The coaches let it go on for a short scuffle before they blew their whistles and the boys circled back around, red-faced but grinning from the adrenaline, so that they could get back to the checking clinic.

"We were practicing checking," Derek repeated, and Leila rolled her eyes.

"If you say so."

"Coach was talking about next game and I think I'm going to be first line again."

"Yeah? Well you were pretty damn good at it before I don't think they'd demote you now."

Derek ran a little ahead and jumped up onto the wall outside a house. He hid his smile from Leila as he skirted along the wall, holding the fence for balance.

"He said Coach Grundy who coaches the peewees is going to come watch us on Saturday. Because they don't have a game and he wants to see who of us is moving up after the summer."

"Cool. "

He could hear that Leila was bored of the hockey talk, now, but the thought of soon being a peewee was so exciting to him that he jumped along the wall and span to look back at her.

"He's coached—"

Derek's foot skid off the wall and he toppled off, his ass hitting the sidewalk even though his wrist was still twisted around the fence. "Ow," he whined, under the sound of Leila's laughter.

"Come on, clumsy. Time to go home."

"I'm not —"

"You'll never be a hockey player if you can't walk without falling over. "

"I am good enough. Coach said so. He said Grundy used to coach Midget and some of his kids are in the NHL now. Anyway. I'm no good at anything else."

Leila knelt beside him, and frowned. "Bullshit." She pried his fingers off the fence and he shook his arm out, trying to ease the pain. "You're good at school. And stories. And you're fluent in three languages and competent in a fourth. Hockey doesn't have to be everything."

Derek stood up, shaking his head. Hockey _was_ everything, and he was happy with that.


	3. Fourteen

"...And this is our ice rink. Did you say that Derek plays hockey?"

"I don't think he'd want to come here if there weren't a chance of being on the team."

Derek pretended to look embarrassed when Dad pulled him back against his chest, but he didn’t shrug him away. He took advantage of the adults talking as if he wasn’t there to look around the Phillips Academy ice rink. As his parents chatted with the teacher showing them around about the school's athletics programmes and Midget hockey leagues and pathways into the NCAA, Derek ran his fingers across the glass that separated them from the ice."That's all for our tour today," the teacher told them. "Is there anything else you'd like to see?"

"Can I skate?" Derek asked.

The adults gave him that patronising look adults often did when he was asking something they considered inappropriate.

"I'm afraid we can't let you on the ice at this moment."

Derek slumped back against Dad in disappointment. Ma gave his shoulder a squeeze as she hastened to move the conversation along. "We know there's not a lot of time before the principal's speech, but we'd really love to get a bit of time with Leila. If she's not in class, of course."

"Of course! If you would follow me."

"What do you think, babo?" Ma asked as they followed the teacher out of the rink.

Derek looked back for one last glimpse of the ice, and felt a tingle of excitement, mixed in with nerves. Hockey was life, was love, was everything, but his Bantam team had slowly become a place he didn’t feel safe. Pushing and shoving in practice had become more frequent — frequent enough that the coaches had started to buckle down on it but somehow Derek was blamed even though he never started it. Having to start fresh with a new team sounded terrifying, even if logically Derek knew it could be a good thing.

"It's a nice rink," he said, because they were still waiting for an answer. "I like the look of some of the classes, too."

He guessed that Dad could hear the uncertainty in his voice, because he pressed his fingers into his hair and massaged gently. As they passed a group of students, Derek ducked away. He may be sharing corridors with these people next year and he wouldn't be seen as a Daddy's boy.

The teacher led them across a quad, filled with grassy lawns and teenagers studying, and they came into one of the residential clusters — the one Derek recognised from dropping Leila off at the start of the school year.

Leila was sat on the front steps up to her dorm building with a book open on her lap and a couple of friends. Derek ran ahead to greet her and she grinned as she jumped up for a hug.

"I didn’t think I'd get to see you guys until this evening. How's the open house going? Are you all set to become an Andover baby?" She asked, pinching Derek's cheek.

"I'm not a baby. It's okay."

"Let me introduce you to Sh— Uh." She glanced at their parents, then at the boy say with her. He had unkempt hair and his shirt was abandoned on the ground next to him. "Knight. This is my baby brother."

"Good to meet you baby Nurse."

"I'm not a baby," Derek repeated.

Knight's mouth stretched into a grin. "I like him," he told Leila, then turned back to Derek. "I hear you play hockey."

"I do."

Leila patted Derek on the shoulder as she passed him to kiss their parents.

"I'm on the team," Knight told him. "Winger. I'll be a senior when you're here."

"Your hair has gotten so long. I like it." Derek turned just in time to see Leila tug on the end of one of Dad's braids. They were halfway down the path now, drawing away from him and leaving him with this white dude who was only wearing half his clothes in February. Derek tried to remind himself that if he was friends with Leila he couldn't be so bad, but to look at he could just be another rich white boy who thought it was cool to rebel against his parents by not looking prim and proper, but whose cover was blown by the very ground he stood on.

"Knight, was it?" Derek asked.

Knight's eyes followed Derek's family and the teacher. When he was satisfied that they were out of earshot he snapped his attention back to Derek. "Call me Shitty."

"What?"

"You know Angie already?" Knight gestured behind him at the other teenager left on the steps.

Derek nodded at Leila's best friend, who had stayed at their house a couple of summers, but his confusion was too much of a distraction. "Did you just tell me to call you Shitty?"

"That's my hockey nickname, brah. You got one of those?"

Derek tried not to wince. As the years had gone on, his nicknames had moved more and more towards what his teammates thought he looked like. He still hadn't told Leila about the seven months after one of them heard her call him 'Der-bear'.

Shitty was still looking at him with a tilted head and perceptive eyes. "How about we just stick to Nursey?"

A lump formed in Derek's throat. The relief he felt over hearing his own name shook him. It shouldn't be so good to be given a nickname that was so boring and uninventive. "You're giving me a nickname?" He hated how his voice wavered.

"Course, brah. We're gonna be a team, aren't we?"

Derek looked at him: his friendly, open eyes; his welcoming smile; his easy acceptance. He might be white, but he wasn't like other hockey players Derek had been on a team with, and he had Leila's stamp of approval. "Yeah," he said, exhaling the word as if he had just brought his head above the water for the first time. "Yeah, I guess we are."


	4. Eighteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's my birthday today which basically means this chapter is unbeta'd because I've had less time to do stuff on it. Anyway, warning that there's some sexist language here.

Nursey looked up and down the line nervously. For a couple of practices, they had been swapping partners and mixing up lines to get the Frogs integrated with the team, and today was the day they would establish lines for regular practice. Bitty sat on the bench with Lardo, still not cleared from his concussion last season, but the rest of the team stood in a line facing the coaches.

"Zimmermann, Wagner, Einhardt."

That they could have guessed. It was obvious, actually, that those three were going to be starting.

"Birkholtz and Oluransi."

Again, obvious. Though Nursey had enjoyed playing with Holster, he had never expected to break up the dream team.

"Chow in goal."

Chowder squeaked in excitement, and Nursey tugged on his arm.

"Well done!" He had suspected Chowder would be starting goalie, but he knew Chowder hadn't let himself hope for it. Chowder grinned back and skated off to the crease behind Ransom and Holster.

"Second we'll have Ostrowski, O'Meara until Bittle is cleared to play, and Angelo. Mortara and Ritvo in defense."

Nursey found himself nodding in resignation. He knew it was going to happen but Mortzy and TiVo together was bad news for him. He'd hoped his chemistry with Mortzy had been good enough to put him with the senior. It had only been a pipedream, however, and as the coaches called out the next group of forwards, Nursey tensed and waited for the inevitable.

"Nurse. Poindexter."

Nursey caught Dex's eye. Dex grimaced at him. They knew they worked well together. In only a few days they had discovered that their playing styles complemented each other and they had a similar mind for tactics which made anticipating each other's moves easy. The problem was their off-ice chemistry. For lack of other ways to put it, Dex was terribly white. He was uptight and serious, but had said some of the most awful, insensitive things.

They circled around each other as the coaches set up some drills for each of them to practice in their new pairs and trios.

"Looks like you're stuck with me, Poindexter," Nursey called over. He watched as Dex’s face twisted in distaste. He wished he didn’t have to see that.

"Whatever, Nurse. Shut up and play. We need to be ready for pre-season games next week."

"Right on!" Shitty shouted, skidding across the ice to meet them. "We can beat Yale."

"Pussies won't know what hit them," Dex said.

Nursey said nothing, but there was a sour taste on his tongue as he pushed off towards the other side of the rink.

"Fuck's sake, Poindexter," Shitty muttered.

Nursey was halfway across the ice when he heard Dex’s responding "What?" and he didn’t slow down to see what Shitty said. Instead, he made a show of jumping over the boards and draining his water bottle down his throat. He looked out on the ice, thinking about this new team, and how he still wasn't one hundred percent sure what to think of them. He thought of Mom, having to watch her child get deeper and deeper into hockey culture. She had to hear him say things which at the back of his mind he knew wasn’t great — that Leila would rip him to shreds if she heard — but which he had never given any thought to why it was so problematic until Mom announced that she preferred 'Mom' to 'Dad'. He wondered how hard it had been for her to come out to him after hearing such things. He hadn’t even noticed her exploring her gender, so it had taken him by surprise, and looking at Dex - even more ignorant than Nursey had ever been - it was easy to see why she had kept it from him so long.

"Nurse! What are you doing?" Jack shouted. Nursey wiped his mouth with a stray hoodie before jumping back on the ice. He could worry about Dex later. First: hockey.


	5. Twenty-one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning for homophobic language and also for anxiety. Again, unbeta'd ooops

Nursey crashed into Dex the moment the final buzzer went. It wasn't a big game, by any means, but they had won, and they had played well, and the only person who had spent more time on the ice than the two of them was Chowder.

"Well done," Dex said. His arms tightened around Nursey's neck, and Nursey thought of his last goal.

"I couldn’t have done it without you, Dexy."

"Not true at all."

Someone snorted.

"Fucking Samwell," one of their opponents said. "No wonder they've got chemistry. They're all fucking."

"Their captain was going to rub off on them eventually," another guy said. Dex jerked away from Nursey, his whole body going rigid.

"Either that or Zimmermann sucked off the ref to make sure his sugar baby got a win."

Nursey put a hand on the back of Dex's neck and skated towards their bench. "Just ignore them," he muttered. "They're bitter because they just lost. Ignore them." Dex trembled under his touch.

"Maybe he did," one of the guys called after them. "But look at those two. Definitely fucking."

"It's okay," Nursey said. "Ignore them."

"Repeat what you just said. I dare you."

Nursey kept his head firmly forwards, rather than watch Chowder get involved. He made sure Dex did as well, with a firm hand on the join between his neck and shoulders and another reminder to ignore them. Ollie and Wicky skated past them to give Chowder some back up. Bitty was already in the tunnel, eyes fixed on the ice, but being held back from going back to them by Foxtrot and Tango.

"Get them off the ice," Nursey said as he pushed Dex through the gate before him. Bitty wriggled out of Foxtrot's grip and jumped past Nursey. Tango started to move, too, but Bitty shouted at him without looking over his shoulder.

"Tony Tangredi, you go back to the locker room."

Nursey left Foxtrot to deal with Tango.

"It's okay, Will. You still with me?"

Dex shook in response. Nursey paused them in the locker room long enough to pull off their helmets and gloves and as much of their padding he could get to with Dex not helping him. He wrapped his hand around Dex's and led him out into the corridor.

"It's okay. They're bitter about losing and spouting crap."

It was easier, now, to see how pale Dex had gone.

"Too obvious," Dex croaked. His voice was barely above a whisper, and Nursey wasn’t sure if he had meant to say it out loud.

"You're not being obvious. They're talking shit, and saying things they think will insult us even though it'd be a fucking honor if I was fucking you."

Nursey's playful grin slid from his face when Dex didn’t acknowledge the joke. He sighed and pulled Dex in, scraping his fingers into his hair. "It's okay, Dexy. You're okay."

"You're asexual," Dex said into his shoulder.

"If I had to pick anyone, though," Nursey told him with a throaty chuckle. He stroked his hair gently. "What do you need?"

"Just... can you just talk? About something else. Anything."

"Okay. Okay, so you know Leila broke up with the asshole, right? Well he'd never got her an engagement ring, they made the promises without that, but he had bought her a Tiffany ring just as a present. Or maybe it was for their anniversary or something but— I can't remember. It wasn't her birthday. He got her the Jimmy Choos for her birthday this year, so—"

"Nurse. Stop name dropping brands."

"Right. Sorry. Anyway he'd got her this ring but it wasn’t for their engagement. And on Thursday when he went to her apartment to get his stuff, he asked for it back. So Leila said no, because it was supposed to just be a present, and did he expect to give back the Rolex she— Sorry. The watch she got him when she was promoted. He was getting all worked up about it but Lei stood her ground and eventually he went without it but he made this whole thing about how he'd be coming back for it when she's had time to think about it. So Leila rang our parents to see what she should do and Mom, the gold digger that she is, said she should ask for both the ring and the watch. And maybe something new in compensation. Like a nice purse."

"I can't believe you just called your mom a gold digger."

"She is. Ma was driving a Lamborghini when they met."

_"Nursey."_

Nursey laughed. "I love her. You know I love her."

"What did your ma say?"

"That she could get lawyers involved and she could ask Uncle Henry for help if she wanted but there probably wasn't much point in that, especially because they never got married so it could get complicated. She basically just said that Leila’s right, either every present they've ever bought each other has to go back to who bought it or she should be able to keep the ring. He's just wishing he called it an engagement ring at the time because it was so expensive. He probably wants to give it to his new woman to keep her around."

"Asshole."

"Right?"

"I agree with your ma. For the record."

Nursey leaned back against the wall so that he could look at Dex properly. "Are you feeling better?"

Dex swayed back into him, so their bodies were still pressed against each other. "Yeah. Thank you. I— I'm sorry."

"Dex."

"I am. I'm sorry. I shouldn't— They've all been saying shit like that ever since September. They shouldn't— I mean, fuck. Why does it even bother me if they think— Jack’s in the fucking NHL and he's out and he’s got it so much worse than me and I can't even—"

"Dex. Slow down. Breathe. You're okay."

"I'm okay," Dex breathed. His hand clasped the back of Nursey's jersey and their foreheads fell together. They breathed in time with each other.

"Derek Nurse?"

They sprang apart in surprise, though Nursey still reached out to make sure Dex was okay. When Dex hooked his thumb around Nursey’s, his hand was steady.

The newcomer was a middle aged white man wearing a suit of the sort of brand Nursey wasn’t allowed to name to Dex.

"I apologize. I didn't want to interrupt, but I was on my way to talk to your coach in the hope of talking to you."

"Me?" Nursey asked.

"I work for the Boston Bruins. Is there somewhere we could sit and have a little chat?"

Nursey's mouth dropped open. "I—" What was he supposed to say to that? There was no way this was really happening, except that Dex had just pressed his thumbnail into the palm of Nursey's hand as if he could tell that Nursey was in need of a bit of grounding.

"I'll go and find Coach Murray," Dex said. He squeezed Nursey's hand once more, then was gone.

Nursey pressed his lips together and forced himself to believe it. "The Boston Bruins are watching me play?"

The scout offered him a smile. "I assure you, Mr Nurse, we're not the only ones."

A buzz of excitement rose in Nursey’s chest. He was only a junior, but his biggest dream since he was five years old was staring at him, and suddenly Samwell didn’t seem so important. After all, the people weren’t going to let him forget them wherever he ended up.


	6. Twenty-Seven

"What are you always writing?" 

Nursey cracked one eye open to look at Beef. The kid was a rookie, barely eighteen, and reminded him greatly of Tango as a frog. 

Wiz leaned forwards so that he could look down the aisle of the airplane at them. "Beef, you don't know Nurse's novel? He was on New York Times Best Seller List." 

"Huh." 

Nursey turned his attention back to his notebook. He was happy if they thought he was writing another novel. That meant less chirping than if they knew he was actually writing fanfiction about his current favorite series. 

"That and it would ruin his whole hipster vibe if he didn't carry a notepad everywhere," said Cloudy, tugging Nursey's hat over his eyes. 

"Respect your elders," Nursey said, pushing his hat back up so that he could glare at his d-partner. "I can't be a hipster. I'm twenty-seven." 

"What does your age have to do with it?" Beef asked. 

"Nothing," Cloudy said. "He's making excuses like he didn’t order a soy amaretto latte at breakfast." 

"Fuck off, Cloudy. Leave my coffee alone." 

"So admit you're a hipster." 

"If I am, it's Dex’s fault," Nursey said, decisively. 

The team hooted in laughter. 

"Sure, sure, blame the boyfriend." 

"Call him," Wiz suggested. "See what he says." 

Nursey rolled his eyes. "We're not—" he started, but Cloudy already had his phone out. Before Nursey could finish his objection, Dex's face was appearing on Cloudy's screen. 

"Hello?" 

Nursey smiled despite himself. The way Dex answered FaceTime as if it were a question or he didn’t know who was on the other end would never fail to amuse him. 

"Poindexter! Nursey’s blaming you for him being a hipster." 

Nursey heard a choking sound, followed by unrelented laughter. Cloudy shot Nursey a smug grin as Dex started wheezing.

“Oh my God, Nurse, that’s— Oh my God. I can’t breathe.”

“Shut up, Poindexter.” Nursey’s grumbling only served to make Dex laugh harder.

“He was already a hipster when I met him. It was insufferable.”

“Dex,” Nursey whined. He shouldn’t have let Cloudy call Dex. He shouldn’t have ever let them meet in the first place, or to get two years of friendship under their belts and exchange numbers. It wasn’t fair how the rest of his team were now laughing at his expense. “Every d-partner I’ve ever had sucks.”

Dex and Cloudy jeered mockingly.

“Hey, put the asshole on,” Dex said, when he had caught his breath. Cloudy passed his phone across and Nursey made a point of rolling his eyes at the camera.

“S’up, Dexy.”

“Hi.” The bags under Dex’s eyes were dark as bruises, his hair stuck up at the side like he had fallen asleep at his desk again, and there was baby sick on his collar. Nursey still had to turn his face away from Cloudy so that he wouldn’t get fined for the smile on his face.

“I told you to get my parents to help you make sure you get some sleep.”

“They were here. Leila was here for a bit. Farms is on her way down tomorrow, straight after C’s game. Don’t worry about me. You’ve got hockey to think about, Captain.”

“I—” Nursey sighed. There was no point arguing when Dex got like this, and as Dex would always remind him, it had been his decision to adopt while Nursey was still playing. “Yeah. Tell C and Farms I’m sorry I missed them?”

“Of course. Good luck against the Stars. We’ll be watching. We’re proud of you.”

“Proud? It’s my job, Dex. It’s been over five years.”

“As if that would make me any less proud. I’m just as proud now as I have been every day since that first scout turned up at Samwell.”

“Is that a fine?” Cloudy asked the plane in general.

“Since the first scout?” Nursey repeated, with a smirk. “I knew you were a gold digger, Poindexter.”

It was an old enough joke that neither of them took it seriously and Dex rolled his eyes. “Oh yeah. Your Toyota Prius was a real turn-on, don't you know.”

“A Prius?” one of the older guys chimed in. “Fucking hell, Nursey.”

“Dex, please stop talking,” Nursey begged.

The moment he saw Dex’s grin, he knew he was in trouble, but he was helpless to stop what followed. “Okay,” Dex simpered. “Well I better go now,  _ baby _ . I’ll talk to you soon, and text you before bed. Have a good game tomorrow, you’re going to play amazingly, and I wish I was there to watch, but Angel and me will just have to put on our matching Nurse jerseys to watch it on TV. I love you and miss you. Bye, baby!”

Nursey buried his face in his hand. “Bye,” he said, and hung up.

Wiz held the portable sin bin under his nose. “Pay up, Cap.”

It seemed that good teams came at high prices.


	7. Thirty-Five

The function room had been picked out by Mom, and as usual she had done a stellar job. The caterers had already been vetted so that there would definitely be food for everyone, especially Nursey with his more awkward dietary requirements. There was a play area just outside for Angel and the children of Nursey’s teammates and former teammates who would be there, and a patio where parents could keep an eye on them. Not everyone was giving up their Valentine’s Day, but Nursey hadn’t wanted a big do, anyway. Thirty-five didn’t feel important enough for that. The main thing was that most of the people he’d really wanted there had promised to make an effort.

He looked around at Dex and Leila, helping to pull down the Valentine’s decorations in their corner of the room and replace them with birthday banners and embarrassing pictures of Nursey, then back at his parents chattering to Angel.

“Baba!” Angel shouted as soon as he saw Nursey. He jumped into Nursey’s arms and giggled when he got spun around. “Baba. Happy birthday.”

“Thank-you, baby. I missed you.”

“Daddy let me stay up to watch you play.”

“Did he? Aren’t you lucky?”

“It’s because I’m big now!”

Nursey sat down, chuckling, and shifted Angel so that he was settled in his lap. He kissed Mom’s cheek. “Hi Mom. Thanks for this. This place is amazing.”

Ma moved to sit the other side of him, offered her cheek for him to kiss, and hugged him in return. “Happy birthday, sweetheart.”

“Thanks, Ma.”

Angel tugged on the sleeve of his jacket. “Baba. When are we going to get to open our presents?”

“Our presents? Angel, baby, your birthday was last month.”

“But—” Angel’s lower lip started to wobble.

“No, baby don’t— Oh, you know what? I don’t have a birthday present for you, but I do have a Valentine’s Day present. Here.” Nursey pulled the box out of his pocket, and peeled Dex’s card off the top before handing it over. Angel blinked at the present, taking a moment to stop his tantrum in its tracks before he ripped into the wrapping paper.

“Chocolate! Grenny, Baba got me chocolates, look!”

“Oh, lovely. And they’re Daddy’s favorites, too,” Ma said, with a smirk. Nursey poked her in the side to shut her up.

“I bet you’re looking forward to having more time with him when you retire,” Mom said.

Nursey’s eyes widened, and he looked down at Angel, but the child was trying to figure out how to get through the plastic wrap around the box of chocolates, and didn’t react to the comment. “Hey, Angel, baby, why don’t you go and offer Daddy one of those and he might open it up for you. Give him this card while you’re there.”

“Is it Daddy’s birthday, too?”

“No, Daddy’s birthday is in Fall. This is for Valentine’s Day.”

Angel took the card and jumped off Nursey’s lap to go and find Dex. Mom and Ma raised their eyebrows and looked to Nursey for answers.

“I haven’t told him, yet. I’ve not told any of the team except management, and enough of the guys come round to visit frequently that I can’t tell Angel. He wouldn’t understand what he can’t say.”

Ma massaged her fingers into his hair. “Babo, don’t you think you should tell him? He loves watching you play. He might need some time to get used to the idea.”

“I just— I want to play out my last season without having everyone knowing it’s my last. I’ll tell him, and Cloudy and maybe some of the other guys before Playoffs, whether we’re in them or not, but not yet. For now it’s just you two, and Dex, C and Farms. And management. So don’t bring it up tonight, please.”

“Okay.” They both nodded, and Nursey let himself relax again. Across the room, Dex was crouched down, talking to Angel and throwing Nursey exasperated looks, while Leila stood on a chair holding up a banner and laughing. Chowder and Farmer walked through the door, laden with presents and followed by Bitty, Jack and the Bittle twins carrying three pie tins each. Nursey leaned into Ma, a grin on his face. It was good to have all his family around him again.

“Nursey! Get over here!” Chowder shouted. Farmer had already lifted Angel onto her shoulders and Dex had stacked the presents on a table. Nursey strolled over and pulled Chowder in for a hug.

“Missed you like fuck. Tell your boss he needs to give you a holiday once in a while.”

“I could say the same for you,” Chowder replied. He reached out blindly to pull Dex into the mix.

“Hey C. Nursey.”

“That all I get as a hello, Poindexter?” Nursey asked.

“You gave my son chocolate.”

“He looked at me with those big eyes and I couldn’t resist.”

Dex rolled his eyes. “Pushover.” He kissed Nursey on the cheek regardless. Chowder grinned at them and smacked his own kisses to their foreheads.

“Missed you nerds.”

“Hey, let someone else greet the birthday boy,” Bitty said, poking Dex until he pulled away. Nursey unwrapped himself from Chowder.

“Hey, Bits. Did you shrink?”

“No, I did not. Be glad it’s your birthday or I’d ban you from pie for that comment. We might have to ration, anyway. I’m sorry I didn’t do anywhere near as many as I wanted to.”

“I’m sure I counted twelve which is probably already too many given we have caterers who are doing their own desserts,” Nursey said. He offered Jack a one-armed hug, and waved them in the direction of the caterers so that they could put the pies down.

Ransom, Holster, Lardo and Shitty were the next to arrive, in high spirits from carpooling together, and hugs were shared all around. Then came some of Nursey’s teammates on the Rangers and their children, and one former teammate from his time on the Falconer’s farm team. Leila’s wife brought Nursey’s favorite uncle and cousins, and the Tadpoles showed up when everyone else had already sat down for dinner.

Angel stayed calm through the adults’ starter (and his main course of chicken tenders and fries), but by the time they were on their main, he was stood on his chair, gripping onto Nursey’s hair for support, and telling Holster all about swimming class over the top of Nursey’s head. “...And I swimmed without my Floaties and the teacher said I can go into the older class now!”

“Swam,” Nursey corrected automatically.

“Angel, sit down, please,” Dex said. His request went unheard.

“That’s great. You must be a really good swimmer. Are you a fish?”

“No! Don’t be silly. I’m not a fish. I’m a shark like Uncle C.”

“Oh wow! That’s super cool,” Holster said.

“Yeah, he is!” Chowder stretched his arm across the table to fist bump Angel. Angel stepped up onto Nursey’s thigh so that he could reach.

“But when I’m big, I’m going to play for the Rangers. Just like Baba.”

Nursey grinned and leaned up to kiss Angel. Later, he would have to let his GM know that he had decided what he wanted to do when he retired. Coaching children like Angel into loving hockey as much as he had sounded perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy birthday Derek Nurse!!


End file.
